action enforcer - amazon s3120 work on sales project this creates a 120-minute timer labeled work on...

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Action Enforcer www.HowtoStartaBusinessandaBlog.com

Action Enforcer

User’s Guide

Brought to you by:

Susan Thomas-Hafer

http://www.howtostartabusinessandablog.com/

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Contents Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 4

Action Enforcer Quick Start ............................................................................................. 5

Creating and Managing Actions ................................................................................. 13

One-Time Actions........................................................................................................ 13

Creating Timers from One-Time Actions .............................................................. 13

Using the “Add an Action” Panel ......................................................................... 16

Repeated Actions....................................................................................................... 18

Action Lists:................................................................................................................... 19

Creating Timers from Repeated Actions ............................................................. 20

Schedule a Daily Success Routine! ....................................................................... 24

Managing Action Lists ............................................................................................ 26

Managing the Actions in Action Lists ................................................................... 27

Working with Timers ........................................................................................................ 28

Timer Modes ................................................................................................................ 28

Parts of a Timer ............................................................................................................ 29

About The +5 Feature ................................................................................................. 31

Using Timer Groups .................................................................................................. 32

Deleting All Timers in a Timer Group ..................................................................... 36

Resetting All Timers in a Timer Group .................................................................... 37

Linking Timers in a Timer Group ............................................................................. 37

Moving/Copying Timers ............................................................................................. 38

Moving a Timer within the Same Timer Group .................................................... 39

Moving/Copying a Timer to a Different Timer Group ........................................ 40

Using the Break Timer ................................................................................................. 41

Using and Customizing Sounds and Notifications ...................................................... 43

Ticking ........................................................................................................................... 43

Alarms ........................................................................................................................... 43

Notifications ................................................................................................................. 44


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Alert Notifications .................................................................................................... 44

Recurring Notifications ........................................................................................... 45

Audio Options ............................................................................................................. 46

Tracking Your Progress ................................................................................................... 47

Generating & Using Reports ...................................................................................... 48

How Report Data Is Generated ............................................................................ 48

Reviewing and Customizing Report Data ............................................................... 49

Displaying Action Notes ............................................................................................. 51

Report Output Options............................................................................................... 52

Configuring and Using the Scoreboard .................................................................. 52

All the Rest... .................................................................................................................... 56

Background Options .................................................................................................. 56

Using Action Reminders ............................................................................................. 57

FAQS ................................................................................................................................. 58


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Introduction

Thank you for downloading Action Enforcer!

Action Enforcer is built around a time-management/productivity concept

known as time-boxing.

Time-boxing is a simple but powerful way of not only organizing and

managing the things you have to do throughout the day, but it employs a

little psychology in order to get you to actually take action on them.

This productivity method is based on a simple, 3-Step process:

1. Write down all the things (actions) you want to get

done for the day. Everything from writing, creating

content, or planning your next project, to answering

your email and balancing your checkbook.

2. Assign a specific time to each action. Anything from

15 minutes to 2 hours. Chunks of 30 minutes or less

work best.

3. Select an action, start a timer (like an egg timer) and

focus on nothing but accomplishing that task. This

means you don't answer the phone, you don't get up for

a drink, you don't log onto Facebook - none of that. You

remain focused on the task-at hand!

If you’ve ever used this system, you know that despite its apparent

simplicity, it works amazingly well!


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Even though it is very effective, doing this system manually, with a written

list of actions and a mechanical egg-timer is no way to approach things in

the 21st

century, where computers and software can not only help

automate processes, but in some ways, make it even better.

Thus, Action Enforcer was born…

The software takes this productivity system, wraps it in a powerful,

intuitive interface, and adds some useful features that would not be

possible otherwise, as you’ll soon see.

So, if you’re ready to take control of your time and get things done, let’s

jump right in!

Action Enforcer Quick Start

In this section, you’re going to be introduced to some basic, overall

concepts about how Action Enforcer works, and how to use it effectively.

At its core, there are two simple elements involved in using Action

Enforcer:

Actions – These are the things you want to accomplish, such

as Check Email, or Organize Office.

Timers – You use timers to assign a specific time to

accomplish each action, such as 30 minutes.

Within Action Enforcer, these two elements are brought together, allowing

you to quickly create a set of timers from the actions you want to

accomplish throughout the day.



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To help you understand this process better, let’s plan a simple day of

activities using Action Enforcer.

To begin, let’s assume you have the following 4 things you want to get

done today, and you’ve allotted a certain amount of time to accomplish

each one:

Check and Answer Email – 30 minutes

Read News – 15 minutes

Work on Sales Project – 120 minutes

Meet with Client – 45 minutes

Let’s now use Action Enforcer to plan these activities.

1. Launch your copy of Action Enforcer:

Start Action Enforcer like you would any other program on your

computer.

2. Locate the “Add an Action” box, and type the following:

30 Check and Answer Email


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This is telling Action Enforcer that you want to allot 30 minutes for

checking your email.

If you wanted to allot 45 minutes for this task, you would enter:

45 Check and Answer Email

Notice the format of how you enter a time amount first (in minutes),

followed by the name of the action:

[time] [action]

NOTE: If you want to add notes to this action, you can enter them into the

Actions Notes box before proceeding with the next step.

3. Press Enter or the Plus button to create a timer from this action:

This will automatically add a new, 30-minute timer to the timers section

of the interface, labeled Check and Answer Email.

You have created the first ‘block’ of productivity for your day. Let’s

continue adding the rest of our actions.



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4. Return to the “Add an Action” box, and enter the following: Read the

News

Now you’ll notice that we’ve not added a time amount to this action, as

we did in Step 2. The reason for this is to demonstrate a second way of

creating timers from actions…

5. Press Enter or the Plus button:

You’ll notice that instead of automatically creating a timer for this action,

as was previously demonstrated, the action we entered has instead been

added to the current Action List (which we’ll discuss in more detail later):

Once again, this happened because we didn’t include a time amount

when we created the action in Step 4.

The fact that the action has been added to the current Action List means

that it hasn’t been assigned a specific time value – yet.

Briefly, Action Lists are a way to save commonly used actions, so you

avoid retyping them again and again.

Well, now that our Read the News action is part of the current Action List,

ready for use/reuse, let’s create a 15-minute timer from it.


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6. Move your mouse over the Read the News action on the Action List.

When the blue time bar appears, move your mouse over it until it

displays 15 minutes, then click:

You’ll notice that this creates a new 15-minute timer next to the first one

we created.

The new timer is labeled, Read the News.

Each new timer you create will update the total time display (the time and

the green bar to the right of the time) to reflect the total amount of time

allotted to accomplish all the actions shown:

NOTE: Initially, the bar that's part of the total time display is green. If the

total time increases above 8 hours, it turns yellow. If you go above 12 hours,

it will turn red, indicating that you may want to trim down the amount of

work you have scheduled:

Let’s finish by adding our last 2 actions.


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7. Return to the “Add an Action” box, enter the following, then press

Enter:

120 Work on Sales Project

This creates a 120-minute timer labeled Work on Sales Project.

8. Finally, in the “Add an Action” box, enter the following, then press

Enter:

45 Meet with Client

This creates the last timer for our demo.

You should now see 4 timers in the timer area of the interface.

The total time amount displayed should be 3:30, representing 3 hours,

30 minutes.


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9. Place your mouse over the current time display to see the

estimated time of completion:

Anytime you place your mouse over the current time display on the

interface, the text color will change to yellow, indicating that the time

shown is the estimated time you will complete all the actions you have

created timers for, if you begin right away.

The amount shown is dynamic, meaning it updates as you add, remove,

or pause timers.

With our timers in place, it’s time to begin using them to get things done!

10. Press the Play button on the Check and Answer Email timer, and

start taking action:

When you press the Play button on the timer, it will begin counting down

- in this case, from a starting point of 30 minutes.

The goal now is to do nothing for the next 30 minutes except the task-at-

hand, which in this scenario is to check and answer email.

As you work, you can either minimize Action Enforcer, or bring other

windows in front of it to get your work done.

After the allotted time is up (the timer has finished counting down), an

audio alarm will go off, and a notification balloon will appear in your

Windows System Tray indicating that the timer has completed.


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When you view Action Enforcer, you will see a big, green checkmark that

indicates that the timer you started has completed.

At this point, you can press the Play button on the next timer to begin

taking action on that activity.

You continue this process until all the timers have been completed.

NOTE: If you don’t want to have to manually start the next timer when one

has finished, press the Link Timers button, which will auto-start the next

timer in the sequence when a timer is completed.

That’s it!

You’ve just completed all the necessary steps to begin using Action

Enforcer right away! But as you can imagine, there’s more power and

functionality available within the application than what we’ve been able to

discuss in this short quick start.

In the sections that follow, we’ll be looking at the various elements of

Action Enforcer in greater detail, to help you get the most value from

using it daily.


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Creating and Managing Actions

Actions, or the things you want to accomplish, are essential elements to

using Action Enforcer.

There are 2 types of actions you can create:

One-Time Actions

Repeated Actions

Let’s look at each of these in more detail.

One-Time Actions

One-time actions are just as the name implies – actions you likely only

need to do once.

These could be things like creating an eBay auction, fixing a screen door,

or something similar.

Creating Timers from One-Time Actions

Let’s look at the procedure for creating timers from one-time actions:

1. In the “Add an Action” box, enter the number of minutes you want

to allot for the action, followed by the name of the action:

As described in the quick start, this entry should be in this format:

[time] [action]


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For example:

20 Create eBay Auction

This will create a 20 minute timer labeled, Create eBay Auction.

NOTE: Always be sure to enter the minute amount first, followed by a space,

then the name of the action.

The length of time you can allot for an action (in minutes) ranges from 1

to 479 (7 hours and 59 minutes). This time is adjustable even after the

timer has been created, as you’ll learn in the next section, “Working with

Timers.”

Optionally, you can give an action a priority (low, medium, or high) by

adding either 1 (*), 2 (**), or 3 (***) asterisks before the action name.

For example, to give the action in this step a “medium” priority, you

would enter it as:

20 ** Create eBay Auction


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Doing this will cause an orange (medium) flag to appear on the timer

when it is created from this action:

2. (Optional) Click inside the “Action Notes” box to include some

notes to the action:

Notes can contain tips, reminders, or any other kind of information

related to this action you might feel would be helpful.

In addition to standard text, notes can include basic HTML for formatting

purposes.

Supported HTML tags include:

Bold - 

Italic - 

Underline - 

Numbered List - <ol></ol>

Bulleted List - <ul></ul>

List Items - <li></li>

Links - <a></a>

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3. Click the ““Add an Action” ” button (the green plus button) to create a

timer from the action:

This will automatically create a timer for this action.

As you’ve seen, creating one-time actions is a quick and simple process.

But for those actions you perform on a regular, ongoing basis, you need a

little more of a robust system, which we’ll be looking at next.

Using the “Add an Action” Panel

Below the ““Add an Action” ” box, you'll find a small arrow button, which

when you move your mouse over, will reveal a panel known as the ““Add

an Action” Panel.”


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How to Start a Business and a Blog

This panel contains three columns of links that help you quickly define

various elements of an action (its tie, its priority, and a verb that

represents what you want to do in the action.)

For example; if you want to spend 30 minutes organizing your office and

it’s of medium priority to you, you would click the following links

respectively:

30 minutes

**(Medium)

Organize

This would fill the ““Add an Action” ” box with the beginnings of an

action:

All you would need to do is add the word “office” to the end and press the

““Add an Action” ” button to create a timer.

Here ae a few important things to keep in mind when using this

panel:

Elements you add to an action must follow this sequence:

[time] [priority] [verb]

Note: There’s a space between each item.

Note: This is the sequence in which you’ll find these elements listed on

the panel itself.


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You’re not required to use all three elements when using the links on

the panel. Just make sure that when you forgo using an element that

you maintain the sequence shown in the previous bulleted point for

elements you DO use.

For example:

[time] [verb] or

[priority] [verb] NOT

[priority] [time] or

[verb] [priority]

If you use the links on this panel to create the beginnings of an action

and you enter the sequence wrong for some reason, click the “clear”

button (the circle with an X in it) to the left of the ““Add an Action” ”

box and try again.

Repeated Actions

Some actions in your life you perform regularly.

Things such as:

Checking your email

Reading the news

Planning your day

And so on...

Because you perform these actions regularly, even daily, having to enter

them into Action Enforcer using the method described in the previous



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section would quickly become tedious and time consuming – not

something you want from a productivity tool!

In order to make creating and managing repeated actions easier, Action

Enforcer makes use of…

Action Lists:

Action Lists are simply

groups of actions (including

notes) that are saved in

Action Enforcer from which

you can quickly create

timers – saving a lot of time

and repeated keystrokes.

Action Enforcer provides 50

different Actions Lists you

can use to organize the

various actions of your life

into.


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Creating Timers from Repeated Actions

Let’s look at the procedure for adding actions to an Action List and then

creating timers from those actions:

1. From the Action List drop-down box, select Custom Action List 2:

When you do this, the Action List display will update to display any

actions currently in this list. By default, this list is empty, so the Action

List display should be clear of any actions.

By selecting this Action List and making it the current list, any actions we

add (which we’ll do in a moment) will be added to this list.

Before we add any actions to this list, let’s first rename it.

2. Click the button to the right of the Action List drop-down box to

rename the current Action List:


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A simple dialog box appears allowing you to edit the name of the current

Action List.

3. Give the Action List a new name, such as My Daily Actions, and

press OK:

You’ll see that the name of the current Action List has been updated.

Now let’s begin adding some actions to it.

4. In the “Add an Action” box, enter the name of the action, such as

Check Email:

You’ll notice that we’ve not included a time amount when entering this

action, as we did when creating a one-time action in the previous

exercise.

This is because actions that are added to an Action List (thus are used

over and over again), can be assigned various times whenever timers are

created from them.

This will make more sense in a moment.

5. (Optional) Click inside the “Action Notes” box to include some

notes with the action:

Once again, if you choose to add notes to this action, do so in this box. If

not, move on to the next step.


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6. Click the “Add an Action” button to add this action to the current

Action List:

The action you entered has now been added to the top current Action

List. Let’s add a few more actions to this Action List.

7. Repeat Steps 4-6 to add the following repeated actions:

Read News

*** Plan Day

The Action List should now contain 3 actions:

NOTE: As previously mentioned, adding 1-3 asterisks to the name of an

action will allow you to set the priority of the action. When creating

repeated actions, this will cause a small flag to appear next to the action


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name on the list. This priority is displayed/transferred when you create a

timer from the action in the future:

In a section below, you’ll learn how to edit and arrange actions on the list

if you need to, but for now, let’s create some timers from these actions.

8. Place your mouse over the name of an action on the list:

This will cause the time bar to appear next to the action’s name.

9. Move your mouse over the time bar, and select a predefined time

that represents the amount of time you want to allot for this action,

and click:

This will create a timer from this action based on the time choice you

selected.

The time amount can be changed at any time. For more information on

how to do this, see the section, “Working with Timers.”

10. Repeat Steps 8 and 9 to create additional timers from actions on

the Action List:

This is just to familiarize yourself with the ease of creating timers from

items on the Action List.


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If you want, you can even select a different Action List and create timers

from actions on it.

Once you’ve added your own custom actions to a list, creating timers

from them in the future is a breeze!

Schedule a Daily Success Routine!

At the bottom of the Action List panel you'll see a special yellow

bar, shown here:

This bar identifies a very important action that you should include daily

on your list of actions to complete – that of going through a daily success

routine.

This action is given a special place on the interface, because doing it is

that important.

So, what is a daily success routine and why is it so important?

A daily success routine is a simple process where you set aside just a

little time each day (preferably in the morning, before you start on

anything else) to feel good, get focused, think about important things,

learn something new, and review the direction your life and business are

headed.

Doing this process consistently is so important because living a life of

excellence isn't the result of one or two things you do every now then.


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Excellence is the result of your habits – what you think about and feel

on a regular, daily basis.

A well-designed daily success routine trains you to achieve awesome

results in life in much the same way daily practice and training turn good

athletes into world champions, or even Olympians!

Where do you find a well-designed daily success routine?

Well, when you create a timer from this action (by clicking one of the

links to the right of the bar), the notes section of the created timer

contains the basics of a simple 7-Step routine based on a powerful and

effective system.

While I'm obviously a big believer in this system, even if you choose not

to use it, I highly recommend that you create and implement some sort

of daily success routine in your life.

Burn it into your brain that it's your daily habits, your routine, and what

you feed your mind regularly, that make you who you are and that largely

determine your results in life. Get consistently better results by practicing

a daily success routine!

At this point, you should have several timers shown on the interface, each

related to the custom actions you added in this section. Now you can

start a timer a go to work!

If you’re ready to learn more, keep reading…


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Managing Action Lists

You’ve already seen how to edit the name of an Action List, now let’s look

at some of the other features you have to manage your lists.

Search All Lists – Clicking this button will reveal a search

window that allows you to do a search for a specific

action. This search functionality searches across ALL 50

lists instantaneously.

Export – Allows you to export the current Action List as

a simple text file (.txt) that you can use as a backup,

transfer to use on another computer, or share with

another user of the application. Actions and notes are

preserved.

Import – Allows you to import an Action List.

Clear – Clears the current list of all actions. This cannot

be undone!

Restore Default – This automatically adds all the items

from the default Action List to the current Action List –

allowing you to use actions from it as a starting point

for your own custom list.


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Managing the Actions in Action Lists

Individual actions in an Action List can be moved, edited, and more.

To perform a task with an individual action on a list, first click to select it.

When you do, a toolbar will appear at the bottom of the Action List panel:

Here's what each of these tools do:

Move Up/Down – Moves the selected action up or down

on the list.

Edit – Opens the contents of the selected action

(including its name and any notes) so they may be edited.

Copy – Copies the contents of the selected action into the

“Add an Action” and “Action Notes” boxes so you can use

it as the start of a similar, new action.

Delete – Deletes the selected action.

NOTE: Normally, when your mouse hovers over an item on the Action List,

a preview of the action and its associated notes will appear in the area

where actions/notes are entered. To display the action and its full notes,

Ctrl-click the action on the Action List.


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Working with Timers

In addition to actions, timers are at the heart of what makes Action

Enforcer such a great productivity tool.

In this section, we’re going to look at how timers work, how to edit their

labels and time, and how to organize them to fit your needs.

Timer Modes

When timers appear on the interface, they appear in one of three modes:

activated, running, and completed:

Activated – This is the mode of a timer when it has been

created, and is ready to be used - it hasn’t been started or

completed yet.

Running – This is the mode a timer enters when it has been

started by pressing the Play button. While in this mode, the

timer’s display appears, it counts down, and it can be

paused. When a timer is in this mode, you should be

working on the action it’s associated with.

Completed – A timer enters this mode when it has

completely count down, or you have manually pressed the

“Complete” button to complete the timer.


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Each timer mode changes the look of a timer, as well as some of the

buttons that appear on it. Let’s look at the various interface elements that

appear in each mode.

Parts of a Timer

Here are the various parts of a timer, and an explanation as to how

they’re used:

Play – Activates the timer and starts its countdown.

Pause – Pauses the timer countdown.

Delete – Deletes the timer from the interface.

Complete – Manually completes the timer. Press this button

whenever you complete an action before the scheduled amount of

time you have allotted for it.


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Reset – Returns the timer back to its original, activated state, ready

to be used again.

Timebar – Contains buttons that allow you to quickly change the

time of the timer using pre-defined time amounts.

Custom Time Slider – Pressing this button will open up a time slider,

allowing you to change the time of the timer to specific amounts –

from 1 to 479 minutes.

Edit Action/Notes – Opens up a panel that allows you to edit the

action name and notes associated with the timer. When using this

feature, any editing you perform is confined to this specific timer only

– this does NOT edit the original action on the Action List in any way.

Expand Notes – When you hover your mouse over this area, the left

side of the interface will display a compact version of the action/notes

associated with the timer. Click this area to open a panel that displays

the full notes.

Move Timer Within Group – Allows you to move the timer to a

different position within the current Timer Group (see the next section

for more information).

Move/Copy Timer To Another Group – Allows you to move or copy

the timer to another Timer Group (see the next section for more

information).

Priority Flag – This is a visual cue to help you quickly and easily see

or set the priority of a timer. To change a timer's priority, simply move

your mouse left and right over the top left corner of the timer (on top

of the priority flag).


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As you do, the priority flag will either disappear or change colors (no

flag = no priority; yellow = low priority; orange = medium priority; red

= high priority). Once the priority you want appears, click the mouse

to select it.

NOTE: Because the priority flag setting is tied with the use of asterisks (*)

in the name of the action/timer, changing a timer's priority value will

automatically update its name accordingly.

About The +5 Feature

Whenever you place your mouse over the time display area of a timer, its

interface will temporarily change to show the following:

This is known as the +5 feature, and it has a very simple function –

clicking the display in this mode will add 5 minutes to the timer (each

click adds 5 more minutes). This allows you to increase the time of a

timer in small increments more quickly than using the Time Slider.


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Using Timer Groups

When looking at the timer section of the interface, you’ll see 12 blocks

for timers. These 12 blocks represent what is known as a Timer Group:

A Timer Group is nothing more than a collection of timers that are related

in some way.

For example, you might have a Monday Timer Group that contains timers

for actions you want to complete on Monday.

You might have another Timer Group named “Vacation Preparation” that

includes everything you need to get done to prepare for a vacation.

Action Enforcer allows you to create and save up to 50 custom Timer

Groups. In addition, there are also Timer Groups for the 7 days of the

week, as well as 31 days of the month. This allows you to organize



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actions/timers in a variety of ways, depending on your personal

preferences.

NOTE: While you are free to edit the names of the custom Timer Groups,

the Timer Groups for the days of the week and the days of the month aren't

editable.

A Timer Group is always displayed on the interface, and the name of that

(current) Timer Group is shown in the upper-left section of the timer-

portion of the interface:

Whenever you create a new timer from an action, the timer is added to

the currently displayed Timer Group.

To switch to a different Timer Group, move your mouse over the name of

the current Timer

Group, which will slide out a panel from which you can choose a different

Timer Group to display:


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Click the name of a group from the list to select it. Doing this will

automatically update the interface to display timers in that group.

NOTE: While this panel is visible, pressing and holding the spacebar on

your keyboard will temporarily make it transparent so you can quickly see

all the timers that are part of the currently selected Timer Group.

At the top of the panel you'll see four buttons that allow you to quickly

scroll the list to various Timer Groups when your mouse is moved over

them.


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The buttons (from left to right) will scroll to the following sections on the

list:

Custom – There are 50 default Timer Groups (identified on the

list as Timer Group 1 – Timer Group 50) which you can rename to

fit your needs. To rename one of these groups, select it on the list,

then below the list, enter a new name and click the Update Name

button.

Days of the Week (Monday – Sunday) – These are set of Timer

Groups with names that can’t be edited based on the 7 days of the

week.

Days of the Month (1st

– 16th

) - These are set of Timer Groups that

can’t be edited based on days 1-16 of the month.

Days of the Month (17th

- 31st

) - These are set of Timer that can’t

be edited based on days 17-31 of the month.

As already mention, how you choose to use Timer Groups to manage

timers is totally up to you.

For example, you may choose to create Timer Groups based on the type

of work you're doing, such as creating a presentation, for which you

would simply rename one of the default groups something like,

“Presentations”, then you would assign timers to that group that

represent the series of actions you go through to create a presentation.

Or you may simply prefer to use any of the built-in day or date-based

Timer Groups to manage timers/actions based on the day of the week or

the day of the month, or you can use a combination – whatever suits your

needs!


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There are 3 main tasks you can perform on ALL timers in a group:

Deleting

Resetting

Linking

Let’s look at each of these tasks a little closer.

Deleting All Timers in a Timer Group

In the event you want to quickly delete all timers in a group so you can fill

it with new actions/timers, simply click the Timer Options menu button,

and press the Delete All Timers button at the bottom of the Timer Groups

panel:

NOTE: Make sure you want to perform this action, as it’s NOT undoable.


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Resetting All Timers in a Timer Group

Maybe a timer group has a bunch of timers that have completed, but you

want to reset and use them again. Instead of manually clicking on each

timer’s Reset button, click the Reset All Timers button to get the job done

quickly:

Linking Timers in a Timer Group

This functionality was touched on briefly, earlier in this guide, but it’s

worth repeating.

Normally, when a timer in a group is completed, you need to open the

application, find the next timer, and manually start it to begin the next

action you have planned.

If you’d like to automate this process so that when a timer completes, the

next one in the group automatically starts, then click the Link Timers

button:


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NOTE: Even when using this functionality, each completed timer will still

set off an alarm to let you know it’s time to move to the next task.

NOTE: When using this functionality, the next timer in the sequence will

only start automatically if it is in the Activated mode (see the beginning of

this section for more information on timer modes). If it’s not, then nothing

happens.

Moving/Copying Timers

By default, whenever you create a timer from an action, it is placed in the

current Timer Group and added to the interface in the following order:

Even after a timer has been created and placed on the interface, you can

move it to a new position within the same Timer Group, or you can

move/copy it to an entirely different group. Let’s look at each of these

options.


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Moving a Timer within the Same Timer Group

To move a timer to a new position within the same Timer Group, click the

button on top-right of its border:

A small panel will appear.

As you move your mouse over the panel, positions within the Timer

Group that you can move the timer to be highlighted. When the position

you want to use is highlighted, click your mouse.


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Moving/Copying a Timer to a Different Timer Group

To move or copy a timer to a different Timer Group, click the button on

the timer with the double-sided arrow:

A dialog box will open containing a list of all Timer Groups.

As you move your mouse over the name of each group on the list, two

buttons will appear over the list.


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When your mouse is over the name of the Timer Group you want to

move/copy the timer to, click the “Move” or “Copy” button, depending on

which action you want to perform.

The dialog box will close automatically and the timer will be moved or

copied.

NOTE: In the case of you making and sending a “copy” of a timer to

different group, you may not notice this has occurred (you won’t see a

visible change on the interface) unless you open the Timer Group where

the timer was copied – it’ll be there!

Using the Break Timer

The timer area of the interface contains a special timer, known as the

Break Timer:

This timer is built to help you easily manage your breaks in-between

taking action.

When you're ready to take a break – anything from 5 to 60 minutes

(perhaps for lunch) – simply move your mouse over the timer bar and

click on a number (which represent minutes):


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Doing this does two things:

Any timers that are currently playing are automatically paused.

The Break Timer is activated, and begins to count down the time, based

on your time selection. The blue bar on the Break Timer will pulse,

indicating that it is active.

While the Break Timer is active, you can place your mouse over the blue

bar to see the amount of time remaining on the timer.

When the timer has count down to 0, an alarm will sound, letting you

know that your break time is over, and it's time to get back to taking

action.

The Reset link that's part of the Break Timer resets its time to 0,

essentially turning if off until the next time you need it.

NOTE: The Break Timer uses the same alarm and notification

sounds/options as those for regular timers. See below for more

information.


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Using and Customizing Sounds and Notifications

Since Action Enforcer is time management software – helping you manage

what you do and when you need to do it – as you can imagine, sound

plays an important part in its overall functionality.

Sounds are used in the following ways within the software:

Ticking

Alarms

Notifications

Let's look at each of these in a bit more detail.

Ticking

Whenever you begin a timer, by default, a ticking sound will also begin to

play. This is a simple audio cue to help remind you that a timer is

counting down, and you should be taking action on something while you

hear it.

In most cases, ticking will stop when the timer is either paused or

completed – just like a physical timer.

The only exception to this is when more than one timer is currently

playing. In this case, ticking will stop only when all timers are either

paused or completed.

Alarms

The functionality of alarms within Action Enforcer are pretty

straightforward.



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When a timer completes as a result of a timer counting down completely,

it triggers the sounding of an alarm to alert you that it has completed.

Notifications

Notifications are a special type of alarm, triggered whenever a timer

reaches a specific time during its countdown.

There are two types of notifications:

Alert

Recurring

Notifications are configurable using the two sliders shown here:

Let's look at how each of these notifications work.

Alert Notifications

The idea behind an Alert notification is very simple. When a timer has

reached the minute-point indicated on the Alert Slider, a notification

sound will play. When this notification is triggered, the alarm will repeat,

based on the number of minutes the slider is set for.

For example, when the slider is set to 5, the alarm will play in a loop 5

times when it is triggered. This is done for a couple reasons. First, to give

you an audio reference of how much time you have left (5 repeats means

5 minutes), and to distinguish it from the Recurring notification, which

doesn't ever repeat.


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This notification is useful because it acts as a bit of an advanced-warning,

of sorts, letting you know that a timer is about to complete. Knowing this

allows you to either quickly wrap-up the action you're currently working

on, or add more time to the timer if you access that you need it.

Recurring Notifications

Recurring notifications are triggered whenever a timer reaches a time that

is a multiple of the time indicated on the Recurring Slider.

For example, if the Recurring Slider is set to 7, then a recurring

notification will play whenever a timer has counted down to the 7, 14, 21,

28, etc. minute-point.

This type of notification is especially useful for helping you manage any

actions that you have scheduled to work on for an hour or more.

For example, let's say you've created a 3 hour timer to work on your

taxes. Obviously, you wouldn't want to work on your taxes for the entire

3 hours without a break. In this scenario, you'd likely set the Recurring

Slider to 30, then start the timer.

At the 2 hour 30 minute point of the timers' countdown, you'd hear a

notification alarm, indicating that it would be a good time to take a

break.

After your break, you'd start the timer again, then at the 2 hour point of

the countdown, you'd hear the recurring notification alarm again, letting

you know it's time to take another break.


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NOTE: The Alert notification has precedence over the Recurring notification.

This means that if a timer reaches a time which has the potential to trigger

both types of notifications, the Alert notification is the only one that will

be triggered.

Audio Options

Action Enforcer contains several basic audio options that allow you

to select from several different ticking, alarm, and notification

sounds, or to disable the sounds altogether.

To access these options, click the “Audio Options” button to the

right of the interface:

Using the Audio Options panel is pretty straightforward: Selecting an

option will not only preview it, but also automatically set it as your sound

choice.

The volume of sounds within Action Enforcer are universal, meaning that

the alarm, ticking, and notification sounds all play at the same volume

(they can't be set individually).


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The universal volume for these sounds is

controlled using the volume controller on the

bottom right of the interface.

At the bottom of this controller is a mute

button for quickly muting all sounds.

Tracking Your Progress

A very important aspect to becoming more productive is knowing

EXACTLY where you’re spending your time, and how much time you’re

spending doing it.

With that in mind, Action Enforcer includes several progress-tracking

features/tools, which include:

Reports

The Scoreboard

Let's look at how to get the most from these tools.



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Generating & Using Reports

Action Enforcer contains a simple report feature that automatically

tabulates useful data as you use it.

You can then review the data to get a crystal-clear picture of how and

where you're spending your valuable time.

How Report Data Is Generated

Report data is generated whenever a timer is completed, either

automatically (by counting down to 0) or manually (by you clicking the

Complete button on the timer).

Two things happen when either occurs:

The number of Completed Actions displayed on the interface is

updated:

The name of the completed action, the notes associated with the

action, the time scheduled to complete it, the actual time it took

to complete, and the current date are captured and saved (behind

the scenes).

When you press the Report button (highlighted in the graphic above), all

the data captured from all the actions you’ve completed is displayed in an

easy-to-read format in the Report Panel.


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Reviewing and Customizing Report Data

The Report Panel is made up of two sections:

The left side of the panel contains the “Completed Action” List, which is a

list of all the completed actions that are included in the report.

As you review items on the list, you may decide that a certain one should

not be included in the report. If this is the case, click the “Delete” button

next to the item:

This will remove the item’s data from the report and the tabulated results

displayed in the report will update automatically.

The right side of the Report Panel contains the actual report.


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The information within the report is separated into 3 sections:

Overall Totals – This section displays the overall

number of completed actions, the total scheduled time

for those actions, and the total actual time it took to

complete those actions.

Totals By Date – This section displays data based on

the date an action was completed. For example, if you

complete 6 various actions on Monday, July 27, 2009,

that group of actions and their accumulative totals will

appear in their own section.

Totals By Action - This section displays data based on

the name of the action. For example, if you’ve

performed and completed the Check Email action 5

times over the course of the week, that group of similar

actions, and their accumulative totals will appear in their

own section.

Note: After generating a report and reviewing it - maybe at the end of the

week - it’s a good idea to click the “Clear All” button at the bottom of the

“Completed Action List” in order to begin the following week with a ‘clean

slate’. This action is instant, and in NOT undoable!


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Displaying Action Notes

Because notes associated with actions can be lengthy, displaying them in

the report is optional.

To include notes in the report, click the green plus button below the text

area where the report is displayed:

This will reformat the report to include any notes associated with the

completed actions in the report.

NOTE: Because the report is presented as simple text, with no special

formatting, notes containing HTML (bold, italic, links, etc.) are not

displayed. If including note information in your reports is important, be

sure to avoid using HTML when writing your notes – use plain text instead.

To remove notes from the report, click the red minus button.


http://links.htm/

http://links.htm/

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Report Output Options

The Report Panel provides three output options:

Copy Report – Copies the contents of the report to your

computer’s clipboard where you can paste into another

document, perhaps an email.

Save Report – Opens a dialog box allowing you to save

the report as a simple text file (.txt).

Print Report – Sends the report to your printer for

printing a hard copy.

Configuring and Using the Scoreboard

There's real motivating power in the setting of goals and tracking your

current progress against whatever progress you've decided represents

ultimate success.

This important concept is the basis for a feature in Action Enforcer known

as the Scoreboard:



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The idea for using the Scoreboard is simple: You decide on a goal for the

number of hours of action you want to complete for the week (or every 2

weeks, or month.)

As you complete actions/timers, Action Enforcer will track the total time

you've spent on those actions, and will update the Scoreboard display to

show the difference between the that time, and the time-goal you've set.

For example, the graphic above shows an overall time-goal of 60 hours.

At the present time, I've only completed 14 hours of that goal (shown as

14 lighted dots in a 60-dot 'scoreboard').

This visual goal-keeper helps you track your overall progress for the week

so you can make adjustments, as needed.

Let's look at how to configure the Scoreboard to fit your needs.

The first thing to understand is where the completed-time data displayed

on the Scoreboard comes from (the 14 hours shown in the example

above). This data comes from the TOTAL ACTUAL TIME data that is

tabulated when you run a report:

Even through the TOTAL ACTUAL TIME shown in the report is 14 hours,

40 minutes, this amount is rounded-down and shown on the Scoreboard

as only 14 hours. The Scoreboard will only show 15 hours when the

TOTAL ACTUAL TIME reaches at least 15:00:00.


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Knowing that the Scoreboard uses this report data, the next thing you

need to decide is how long you want to collect data for the report before

you clear it and start from scratch – 1 week? 2 weeks? A month?

Let's say you regularly collect data for reports on a weekly basis, then you

clear all completed actions on the Report Panel, and start over. With that

in mind, what hour-goal for taking action do you want to reach each

week? 40 hours? 50 hours?

Once you decide on an hour-goal, the next step is to configure the

Scoreboard display accordingly. You do this by clicking the Customize the

Scoreboard button to the right of the interface:

This will open a panel that will allow you to configure the Scoreboard's

size.


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For example, if you decide the hour-goal you want to reach each week is

55, move your mouse over the dots on the panel until you see the

number 55 shown in the Set to: box and then click your mouse to select

that amount:

The Scoreboard display will instantly update, based on your selection:

Your mission now: Light up as many of the 55 'lights' on the Scoreboard

as you can before the end of the week.

NOTE: Obviously, since the functionality of the Scoreboard is tied directly

to the time data shown in the report, the Scoreboard display is reset

whenever you clear all completed actions on the Reports Panel, as

discussed earlier.


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All the Rest...

There are a couple remaining features of Action Enforcer that stand alone

in their functionality, so let's briefly look at those.

Background Options

A simple way to customize the look of Action Enforcer is to change its

background.

To do this, click the “Background Options” button to the right of the

interface:

This will open a panel that allows you to select from over 30 built-in

backgrounds, or you can use the buttons at the bottom of the panel to

load a background image in from your computer, or from a URL (for

images that exist online).

NOTE: While this panel is visible, pressing and holding the Spacebar on

your keyboard will temporarily make it transparent so you can quickly see

how your background choice appears on the overall interface.



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Using Action Reminders

In order to stay focused on achieving excellence in our lives, we all need

to be occasionally reminded of important ideas, quotes, and even

questions that get us to think in new ways. This is the purpose of the

“Action Reminders” feature within Action Enforcer.

When you place your mouse over the three pulsing dots to the right of

the interface, an Action Reminder will appear:

When you see an Action Reminder, spend 5-10 seconds to think about its

value, and think of ways you can put the idea into action within your own

life.

Give it some real thought, and if the inspiration hits you, create an

action/timer that helps you do something to live up to the idea or

principle being expressed, even if it's just for 5-10 minutes. If you do this

enough, the results you get will compound into something amazing! :)

The Action Reminder that's shown will change every 24 hours (if you

leave the software running), or whenever you restart the software.



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FAQS

Here’s a short list of frequently asked questions about Action Enforcer,

and their answers.

Q: Why does text appear twice (ttwwiiccee) when entering a new

action?

A: This is usually due to a strange conflict between Action Enforcer and a

program called ActiveWords. A workaround is to either disable

ActiveWords when using Action Enforcer, or start Action Enforcer first,

prior to starting ActiveWords.

Q: I'm not seeing the entire interface, what's wrong?

A: This is usually due to your screen resolution settings. Action Enforcer

requires a minimum screen resolution of 1024 x 768. Check to make

sure yours is set to at least this setting.

Q: I cleaned up files on computer recently, and my saved data

has disappeared. How can I get it back?

A: Some Windows 'cleaner' utilities will remove the data file created/used

by the software (named ActionMachine.sol) when they 'sweep' your

computer clean.

To restore this file to its original location or to set your sweeper utility

from removing it in the first place, you need to know its location on your

computer, which is:


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Main Drive > Documents and Settings > [Your User Name] > Application

Data > Macromedia > Flash Player > #SharedObjects > [Random Folder

Name] > localhost > ActionMachine.sol

Specifically, this data file is something CCleaner considers a Flash cookie.

I believe it has an option to prevent the deletion of these (Flash cookies)

in the cleanup process.

If you set it to keep Flash cookies, you shouldn't have this issue again.

Q: How can I minimize the system resources used by Action

Enforcer?

A: For best results, minimize Action Enforcer to the System Tray when

you're not interacting or viewing it.
